Boots, Blitzen, and Burglary: A Cozy Magic Midlife Mystery (Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries Book 9) by Leanne Leeds

Author:Leanne Leeds [Leeds, Leanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Badchen Publishing
Published: 2024-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The drive back to the Silver Circle felt longer than usual, each mile stretching out like taffy as my mind replayed the argument with Evie. The late fall sun slanted through bare tree branches, casting zebra-stripe shadows across the cracked asphalt of Main Street. Shop windows reflected golden light, their holiday displays twinkling even in daylight.

It all looked so peaceful. So cheery.

Beside me, Landon gripped the steering wheel with both hands, his shoulders set in that protective way he had when he wanted to fix something, but knew he couldn’t.

“She’ll come around,” he said, breaking the quiet. “She just needs time to cool off.”

“I know.” The words tasted stale in my mouth. “I just hate that we fought. And in public, no less.”

As we pulled into the shelter’s parking lot, my gaze swept past the row of cars I knew by heart—Keisha’s battered blue Honda, Darla’s white Prius with its “Cat Mom” sticker, the collection of visitor vehicles that had accumulated since the viral post. I was hoping to spot Evie’s familiar figure getting out of Matt’s car, but found only rust-colored leaves dancing across the cracked pavement.

The cheerful jingle of the doorbell felt mocking as we stepped inside. I opened my mouth to ask Keisha if she’d seen Evie, but the words died in my throat when I noticed Blitzen in the mantrap—our double-doored entry system designed to keep cats from escaping. The Snowshoe cat had wedged himself into a narrow space on the side, his white and gray body contorted like a furry pretzel.

“Is he...” Landon squinted. “Is he doing yoga?”

Blitzen had somehow twisted his body into a position that would make a circus contortionist proud. His front half pointed up while his back half curved down, creating a perfect U-shape. He braced his back paws against the wall and his front paws against a support bar, inching his way toward the small gap at the top.

“We paid a lot of money for that man trap,” I muttered.

“Maybe you should have specified it was a cat trap.”

Blitzen paused in his gymnastics routine to shoot the cafe with a smug look. Then, with the grace of a liquid being poured upward, he slithered through a space in the ceiling that couldn’t have been more than two inches wide.

“Did he just...” Landon gestured at the door, his expression caught between awe and disbelief.

“Break the laws of physics? Yes, I believe he did.”

Through the glass, we watched as Blitzen landed on his paws with gymnastic precision, each white toe perfectly aligned on the concrete. He gave himself a full-body shake that rippled from his whiskers to the tip of his tail, his sleek fur settling back into place like an expensive suit being adjusted.

The smug tilt of his head and the aristocratic arch of his neck screamed “too easy” as clearly as if he’d spoken the words. His tail shot straight up like a flagpole of triumph, the dark tip twitching with barely contained satisfaction as he trotted down the

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